1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of therapeutic evaluation of physical subjects in particular humans in athletics.
2. Background
In the world of sports science and medicine different areas of expertise are utilized to ensure that an athlete has the best opportunity to achieve their full potential. Some of these areas of expertise are athletic training, physical therapy, exercise physiology, and team physicians. Currently, each of these professionals assesses the athlete and provides the trainer or coach feedback. Many of the tests performed by these professionals are subjective—relying on the naked eye to examine complex movements. These tests can also be very time consuming and involve tedious measurement methods. Both aspects of current evaluations introduce human error. What can be seen or felt is often debatable and leads to unreliable and unrepeatable methods of testing. Minimal mistakes during these tests or differences between tests can change an athletes report from a label of ‘unhealthy’ to ‘healthy’ or vice versa.
Biomechanical analyses is needed to transform normal observations into numbers, and thus turn the subjective into the objective. The athletic trainer, physical therapist, exercise physiologist, and biomechanist all need provide a complete picture of any athlete.